City juggling multiple projects

Currently, the City of Marlow has six projects underway in various stages of completion - from waiting patiently to nearly done. City Administrator Janice Cain provided the following updates.

City Hall

The new city hall on S. 2nd Street is the project closest to competition, though a firm timetable will not be set until later this month.
“We think we’ve got a timeline that we think we will be in there,” City Administrator Janice Cain said. “There are some exterior things that might keep that from happening, so we don’t want to say for certain yet.”
Cain said a timeline to vacate the existing city hall and be operational in the new one should happen within the next few weeks.

Sidewalks

The sidewalk project began Monday on the north side of the 100 block of E. Main, and is already proving to be a major undertaking.
“Just in the first two days, I can already tell this is going to be a time-consuming project for me,” Cain said. “I have been told these projects have been very difficult to accomplish because of the specific design you have to meet.”
“I can tell you from the first two days, this is going to be a headache project, but everybody is going to love the end result,” she said.
One major problem is the age of the sidewalks and the buildings they adjoin.
“What you dig up and you find, you don’t account for that,” Cain said. “We are digging up stuff we didn’t know was there and you have to make decisions on the spot, on a daily basis.”
“You have to be flexible and work through the problems to get the result you desire to achieve.”

Library

Cain is having weekly meetings with building contractors for the new library being constructed at the old armory.
While work is progressing, some of the same problems with the sidewalks are being found at the library.
“Again, you’re dealing with an old structure,” Cain said. “When you demolish, you discover little things you didn’t account for and you have to regroup and figure it out.
“Both the sidewalks and the library are going to be a challenge in that regard of the infrastructure that we are dealing with there. But they will be two projects we will be extremely proud of when they are done.”

Recycling

City officials are excited to get the recycling program started in the city. It began yesterday (Wednesday).
“We’ve heard a lot of positive, and we’ve also heard the negative,” Cain said. “The South Central Oklahoma Environmental Authority (SCOEA) has taken a proactive approach with recycling by implementing it before it gets mandated to us.
“I feel like we, the citizens, are doing our due diligence in learning about the environment and with limited landfill space, we don’t want one to come to our backyard. I think we are being responsible citizens by trying to preserve landfills and the environment.”

Splash Pad

The city council passed a resolution in December seeking a grant from the Oklahoma Department of Tourism to pay half of the total cost of installing a splash pad at Redbud Park.
“We are still waiting to hear back,” Cain said. “We will find out mid-summer whether we were awarded the money or not. We will talk about getting the money for projects like that in our upcoming work sessions with the city council.”

Electrical Substation Expansion

The project, which will install an additional transformer and update the current one, is still in its infancy but should start gaining traction in the near future.
“We are fine-tuning the requested proposals for engineering and design,” Cain said. “We will be developing a bid date for that within the next 30 days.”